Frantic cooking game Overcooked is reportedly being adapted into a competitive reality TV show, with A24 developing the project for Netflix.
The news arrives courtesy of Deadline, which likened the project to similar Netflix reality shows like Nailed It! and Floor Is Lava. With these examples, we can expect any adaptation will lean heavily into the absurdity of Overcooked, for maximum drama.
A24’s Overcooked – quick links
What do we know about A24’s Overcooked adaptation?
For those unfamiliar with the game, Overcooked is a multiplayer cooking game premised on bizarre circumstances. As you begin, you’re simply working alongside your fellow chefs to create meals, one ingredient at a time – chopping food, plating up, and washing dishes.
As levels advance, Overcooked adds in a variety of obstacles to overcome, all of which complicate your cooking processes. In some stages, the earth constantly shifts, sending your cooking stages floating around, or locking you out from certain ingredients, forcing you to rely on your partners.
The entire in-game cooking process eventually devolves into shouting as you beg for certain ingredients, dishwashing, or just for everyone to get their stuff in gear. In a word, it can be absolute chaos – and that certainly makes it a tantalising prospect for adaptation.
As noted by Deadline, A24 and Netflix are yet to comment on reports of this adaptation. That said, it’s believed to already be in production, with Ghost Town Games’ Gemma Langford, Oli De-Vine, and Phil Duncan reportedly now working alongside A24.
Should this report prove accurate, as noted by Deadline, this will be the first reality TV series from A24, a studio more known for experimental, arthouse films.
At this stage, nothing is confirmed just yet – but given the possibilities that emerge from even thinking about an Overcooked adaptation, you can already see what might result from this reported project.
Also on ScreenHub: How video games improve your mental health and strengthen social bonds
Any video game player can tell you that gaming improves mental health and happiness. There’s joy in the act of play, and we are all, inherently, creatures that long for play. At SXSW Sydney 2025, researcher and psychologist Rachel Kowert delivered a powerful talk encompassing these concepts, detailing the power of video games to reshape, relax, and connect human minds.
It was one of the most important talks of the show, quantifying the importance of gaming, outlining results-driven data about the positive nature of games, and revealing how they allow us to live happier, longer lives. Kowert began her talk with a history of games, as perceived by traditional media. As she described – and as many of us will remember – a great fear of games accompanied their initial establishment.
As with all new technologies, fear of the unknown sparked major concerns, with the media coining terms like ‘vidiot’ to degrade those who chose to play games, and otherwise spreading falsities about brain rot and a correlation between virtual violence and real-life violence.
This fear spread throughout the early decades of gaming, as titles incorporating bloody violence, like Mortal Kombat, caused widespread moral panic. Into the 2000s and 2010s, Grand Theft Auto continued this legacy, with plenty of mainstream hand-wringing about games and their influence on young children. As Kowert pointed out, these conversations dominated the mainstream in a way that transformed the long-term discourse around gaming.
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